Department of Health Promotion and Disability Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
Department of Global and International Health, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
BMC Health Serv Res. 2024 Oct 30;24(1):1314. doi: 10.1186/s12913-024-11611-x.
Despite Ghana's Persons with Disability Act, 2006 (Act 715) making provisions for access to healthcare services for adolescents with disabilities and their families, a corpus of literature has reported that persons with disabilities continue to face challenges in accessing healthcare services. However, the voices of adolescents with disabilities and their families are very scarce in such discourse. This study explored the experiences of adolescents with disabilities and their families in accessing healthcare services as per the provisions described in Ghana's Act 715.
This study involved 45 participants, including 25 adolescents with disabilities and 20 family members from a municipality in Ghana. Employing a qualitative descriptive design, semi-structured interviews were conducted which was then analyzed thematically and interpreted using Critical Disability Theory.
The study identified two major categories of barriers to healthcare access: environmental (socio-economic difficulties, poor built environment, unavailability of rehabilitation services) and systemic (cultural beliefs, poor support at healthcare facilities and inadequate healthcare legislative provisions for families of children with disabilities). Despite legal provisions for free healthcare, participants faced significant financial barriers, with specialist services often not covered by the National Health Insurance Scheme.
The study calls for policy adjustments to fully cover specialist care under Ghana's National Health Insurance Scheme, establishment of local-level health assessment and resource centers, educational campaigns to change cultural perceptions, and training of healthcare workers to promote quality access to healthcare.
尽管加纳 2006 年的《残疾人法案》（第 715 号法案）规定为残疾青少年及其家庭提供医疗保健服务，但大量文献报告称，残疾人在获得医疗保健服务方面仍然面临挑战。然而，残疾青少年及其家庭的声音在这种讨论中非常稀缺。本研究根据加纳第 715 号法案的规定，探讨了残疾青少年及其家庭在获得医疗保健服务方面的经验。
本研究涉及加纳一个直辖市的 45 名参与者，包括 25 名残疾青少年和 20 名家庭成员。采用定性描述设计，进行了半结构化访谈，然后使用批判性残疾理论进行主题分析和解释。
研究确定了获得医疗保健的两个主要障碍类别：环境（社会经济困难、不良的建筑环境、康复服务不可用）和系统（文化信仰、医疗保健设施支持不足、残疾儿童家庭的医疗保健立法规定不足）。尽管有免费医疗保健的法律规定，但参与者面临着重大的财务障碍，专科服务通常不在国家健康保险计划的覆盖范围内。
该研究呼吁政策调整，将专科护理全面纳入加纳国家健康保险计划，建立地方一级的健康评估和资源中心，开展改变文化观念的宣传活动，以及培训医疗保健工作者，以促进优质的医疗保健服务。
